Not so Flushed Away.

Toilets are in the news today.

In the recent kids movie "Flushed Away," where a white rat named Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) who lives his life of luxury as a pet in London and gets flushed down the toilet by a not-so-friendly intruding rat, Spike. In contrast, residence of Tuscon, Arizona have been finding rats in their toilet bowls. Apparently the determined vermin have been swimming up the pipes and finding their way into people's homes. According to reports, the rats resemble the kinds which are found in pet stores and science labs.

Making it from the sewer up the lines into someone's toilet is a difficult trip, Hagen Fairbanks said.

A four-inch pipe, called the house connection sewer, or HCS, runs from the house to a sewer main. And there's no "trap door" or other barrier in place, she said.

But if the lines are running, the rats have to hold their breath and swim uphill in the pipes against the water current.

"If the rat makes it through your HCS, that's a determined rat," she said.

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